Biography
Baldini won the silver medal at the foil 2006 World Fencing Championships after he lost the final 15-14 versus Peter Joppich. He repeated the same feat a year later at the 2007 World Championships this time losing 15–9 to Joppich.
On 1 August 2008 it was announced that Baldini had failed a drug test, and as a result had to relinquish his potential participation in the Beijing Olympics. Andrea Cassarà went in his place. The next year he was completely cleared of all accusations, and was readmitted to competitions, winning two gold medals at the European Championships in Plovdiv (individual and team). This time he eliminated Joppich in the quarter-finals.
On 3 October 2009, he finally became World Champion, defeating Andrea Cassarà 15-14 in the quarter-finals, Artem Sedov 15-6 in the semi-finals, and Zhu Jun 15–11 in the final. On the podium, he displayed an Italian flag with lyrics from Bob Dylan's "The Hurricane" written on it.
On July 2010, he won two gold medals at the 2010 European Fencing Championships in Leipzig.
Read more about this topic: Andrea Baldini
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